Around 7 pm on July 6, 2025, there was a woman and a man standing behind the counter by the cash register talking to each other when I walked up. The woman had her gloved hands on her hips, and when she saw me she came down to take my order, with the same gloved hands she'd just had on her hips. I asked her if she could please wash her hands, and her response was "I'm changing my gloves." I replied, 'I know, but you're supposed to wash your hands in between glove changes, " at which point she walked down to her co-worker, the male, and said something to him. He then came down to make my sandwiches, without washing his hands, after he had just been handling money. When I asked him to wash his hands, he gave me push back as well. I don't understand this, because I know what they teach you in food service and sanitation. It's pretty much the same thing that they teach you in healthcare, especially since the pandemic. Yet any Subway that I've ever gone into in the Chicagoland area, with the exception of one Black owned franchise near Kennedy King College (which I'm not sure is even there anymore), always has employees who are super reluctant to wash their hands. They actually get offended, most of them, and these two were not an exception, with the woman telling me at one point that she "wasn't going to argue with me". Nah, sis, that's wrong. You definitely have an argument on your hands when you try to use filthy ones to prepare food for me or mine, or don't you get that filth isn't always tangible? I don't eat or serve any food to my family without washing my hands. Kids and adults alike in my family know to wash their hands before they prepare or eat food. To that end, I will not allow anyone else to prepare food for my family or me without, what? Washing their hands. It's really that simple. Hand washing is the FIRST line of defense in preventing the spread of foodborne illness and other diseases. Why would you argue with someone who wants you to help protect them from getting sick from eating their food? As they should protect you To top it off, after reluctantly giving me the manager's supposed phone number, the man proceeds to tell me that none of the other customers ask him to wash his hands. Bruh. I can't control other people's expectations of how their food should be handled. But I can absolutely control how food for me and my family is handled. If other people are not disgusted by your lack of hygiene while you're making their food, that's on them. Perhaps they just don't know any better, which I find hard to believe in this day and age, since we're just barely on the other side of a global pandemic, but okay. I DO know better. I came to buy three sandwiches, to be upgraded to meals. I left without buying anything because, nope. HELL, no. This and other Subways whose employees are reluctant or refuse to wash their hands to help protect the customers they serve from possible food poisoning, need to have their doors shut. Subway's philosophy must now be, "less meat, more germs." Duly noted.
I will be contacting IDPH. If these employees are this unwilling to wash their hands in full view, imagine what filthy, unsanitary conditions exist behind the scenes 😝 If I can prevent at least one person from getting norovirus or any other foodborne illness caused by a lack of hand hygiene, I'll be grateful.